


Cherry Poppers

by MegumitheGreat



Series: Shameless Mitchentine what-ifs, inserts, and fixes [2]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Banter, Cherry poppers, F/M, Fix-It, Hunting Party, Pranks and Practical Jokes, What-If, kids being kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-11 10:10:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20151913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat
Summary: Clementine, AJ, Mitch, Aasim, and Louis get sent out to do some hunting.  Mitch decides to play a prank.





	Cherry Poppers

**Author's Note:**

> Woooow this was sitting on my laptop for a WHILE. I had originally thought that this idea was just stupid, but then I remembered how cute it would be if Mitch went out hunting and decided to cause a little harmless trouble. I don't doubt that Clem and AJ would be part of it, too. All just to be a kid again.

Aasim led Clementine, AJ, Louis, and Mitch out into the woods off to the side of the school. Today, Marlon had sent them to go hunting, and the only one truly excited was Louis. Mitch, who had never been fond of hanging out much with Louis, was at the very least annoyed that he had to come along. He couldn’t stand how happy and carefree he was. Then again, he was also somewhat of a loner. On the other hand, Clementine had been given the choice whether to go with them to see what hunting was like or to go with Violet and Brody to check out the old shack where they fished. She wondered if it would have been better to go with the girls since if things were quieter with them, then it would have been easier to catch fish. She supposed the same logic could have applied to hunting small animals like rabbits and squirrels as long as Louis stayed silent; however, Aasim took pride in the traps he and Willy made. And how could she pass up the opportunity to get to know a certain person? After all, her brief meeting with Mitch last night felt like only a second.

“Wow, it’s, like, really hot today,” Louis sighed loudly. “You’d think with all the monsters, pollution would be under control, you know? All those greenhouse gases and whatnot aren’t being made like they used to.”

“Monsters still rot, genius,” Mitch grumbled. “Shit takes up air or whatever. Besides, wherever they go, the place smells like baked shit.”

“You know what baked shit smells like?” Clementine joked.

“Who doesn’t? You’ve never seen dog shit on a sidewalk?”

Louis let out a laugh. “Mitch is pretty testy this morning, isn’t he!” he teased.

Aasim shook his head. “Can you guys stop? Not only are you going to scare away food, but you’re making me sick,” he chastised them.

“Sorry, Sim.” They were all quiet for a moment. “So, what do we do if a monster attacks us?”

“Kill it, duh,” Mitch answered.

“Boring!”

“What would you do, then?”

“Obviously dodge it like a ninja,” Clementine said while winking at AJ. “Then kill it.”

“Oh-ho, we’ve got ourselves yet another nin-ja!” Louis celebrated as he made karate hands as he said that. “We all saw what you can do, Clem. Straight badassery out there last night, amirite, Mitch?”

Mitch glared at him. He had been part of that hunting party, so he wasn’t particularly glad to be asked that. He could have fought his way out of a grapple with a walker or two, but with a horde coming after them in the dark, he knew that Louis was aware he had been scared. Aasim was displeased as well. In fact, he wrote in his journal that he wouldn’t, couldn’t, and shouldn’t be saved by a girl. He was the oldest, and while he wasn’t the strongest, he wanted to have his pride still intact to the very end.

“Just things that I’ve learned over the years,” Clementine modestly said. “I always try to keep up with combat training. I’ve got to look out for AJ, you know?”

Mitch turned away from her in an attempt to hide his face. He liked a girl that could fight on her own, and in all honesty, the fact that she was fighting to keep AJ safe from danger resonated with him on a deeply personal level. He’d never tell her, but that’s how he felt about Willy. Sure, Willy was older than AJ and could shoot arrows as well as the next person, but his mind was much more of an asset to them. He had helped Aasim to build their traps in the forest from the log rams to the snares that they were checking to the fish traps in the river, and while the older boy thought they were silly, he had to give credit that they really worked.

“So, Mitch can fight too, I take it?” Clementine smirked. “You mentioned _another ninja_, after all.”

“No, I—” Mitch started only to have Louis cut him off out of pure excitement and pride in his friend.

“Mitch is one of the best fighters we have! Dude packs a punch, let me tell you,” he chatted.

Mitch refused to participate in the conversation, and he was going to have to get back at Louis for that.

“That’s a good thing, right? Because you can protect yourself,” AJ said.

Clementine enjoyed the conversation. It had been so long since she was able to chat with people her age about frivolous things and to have a moment where she wasn’t worrying for her life. She had Gabe a couple years back, but she hadn’t seen him since she left him and Javier. And Gabe wasn’t the brightest color in the box, something that worried her that his stupidity would get them killed. When she saw Mitch carving that stick into a weapon, she had thought it was because he was bored. Nowadays, boredom was beneficial. He wasn’t wasting time; he was lying in wait for the next walker horde. He was calculating.

“Hey, Aasim!” Louis suddenly called out. He gave some sort of look at Mitch that insinuated to him something like, “Go get her.”

Mitch, again, was annoyed at him. He had taken his little blurts too seriously—he was sure of it. To make matters worse, AJ was there, too. Young minds were impressionable, and he could tell the little boy wasn’t stupid. Sooner or later, he was bound to ask Clementine or him if there was something they’d like to share.

“Stupid Louis,” he simply growled in a low voice. “Doesn’t know when to shut up.”

“You don’t like talking?” Clementine asked him. She kept pace with him, AJ next to her also listening to him.

“I…Louis just talks too much for his own good. I’d teach him a lesson if I could.”

“He didn’t say anything bad, though,” AJ replied.

“No, but I don’t like him talking about me. I’m good in a fight, sure. But at least let me be the one to say I’m one of the best. Then when I’m not, I can eat my own words.”

Clementine cocked an eyebrow at him, which hid under the edge of her hat. She was smiling at him, as if she would have liked to see what he could do.

“Does it really bother you that much?” Clementine asked him. “You don’t seem like the person that would care what people say. Or did I get that wrong?”

Mitch pouted. He only spoke with her for less than five minutes; why was she trying to figure out if she was right or wrong? Though, the truth was that she simply wanted to talk more precisely to learn about him. Louis wore his emotions on his sleeve while Aasim was rather reserved. She had an entire spectrum right there. Where did Mitch fit on it?

“Hey, let’s play a prank on him,” Mitch said with a devious smile.

“Uh…” Clementine uttered.

“Nothing that’s going to hurt him. Just going to spook him a bit.”

“That sounds fun!” AJ giggled.

“Right on, little dude. Clem, come on!”

Clementine was unsure at first. She looked down at AJ then up at Mitch. She glanced over at Louis and Aasim who were going different ways. Aasim wanted to hunt. Louis wanted to play piñata with a walker that had gotten caught in a rope trap.

“What do you have in mind?” she cautiously asked him.

Mitch’s face seemed to light up, his green eyes sparkling in the afternoon sun. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few cherry poppers. Clementine was amazed he still had them. They were tiny and still perfectly wrapped in the thin white cigarette paper that held gravel, sand, and a tiny amount of explosive chemicals in it. AJ picked one from his hand, but Mitch warned him not to throw it for various reasons, walkers being the least of his worries. But still, Clementine was dubious.

“You sure they work?” she asked him. “What if they’re duds?”

“They work, I know they do,” Mitch promised. “I made these.”

“And where did you get the stuff to do that?” She didn’t mind smokers, but where would he have gotten cigarettes?

“That train station we found you at used to have a few cartons lying around. Well, at least I sometimes found cigarettes made from Bible pages. And there was some fuel over there. Mix it with the right stuff, and you can make a bomb. Oh, but you have to make sure there’s more gravel and sand or else the explosion isn’t buffered. Actually, these might be a little dangerous for your kid, but as long as he’s careful, he’ll be okay.”

Clementine’s hazel eyes grew wide. Mitch seemed to really know what he was talking about. It was…cute.

Mitch, in contrast, scratched his head, avoiding any glances at Clementine for fear that maybe he was weird and all this talk about building explosives may have put her off. He wanted to ask if she thought it was strange even though she knew that all the kids at Ericson had problems.

“You sound really smart,” AJ finally told him.

“Really?” Mitch blushed.

“Yeah, because even Clementine doesn’t know half of what you said.”

“AJ…” Clementine scolded. She turned her attention back to Mitch.

He handed her a handful of them, excitement painted on his face. Quietly, he led them to where Louis was. He was bashing the walker with well-timed swings that Mitch could easily predict. He was going to show them what to do. With three of the cherry poppers ready in his hand, he waited for the walker to swing back towards his friend. The second that Chairles—Louis’s chair-leg weapon of choice—connected with the head of the walker, he threw down the little crackers. Bang-bang-bang! The poppers snapped behind Louis, who let out a shriek thinking that he was being shot at. Mitch, Clementine, and AJ hid behind the shrubbery, the explosives guru tittering at the scare he’d just delivered.

“The fuck was that?” Louis asked while quaking with fear. “Aasim, you good over there?!”

Aasim was pretty far from Louis, so naturally he didn’t hear him. The chatterbox of a boy ran past Clementine and the boys, so Mitch told her to throw her poppers behind him. As if Louis wasn’t scared enough before, now he was practically screaming after Aasim.

“Come on, we’re going to lose him!” Mitch said. His eyes were shining; he was having so much fun that Clementine wasn’t sure if she should have been concerned or reveling in the poor kid’s misery as well.

The three of them chased after him only to skid to a stop in front of Aasim, who was particularly angry that Mitch had brought something that sounded like gunshots on the mission. The joke had scared away any game in the area, and Louis was nearly in tears.

“You could have really gotten us into trouble, and have you forgotten about the walkers?” the ever-serious Aasim scolded. “I expected as much from Mitch, but Clementine? Come on!”

“Hey, don’t get mad at her,” Mitch fought back. “We were just having a little fun. Relax.”

“That kind of fun could get us killed!” Aasim glanced down at AJ, who was trying to shove his poppers into his tiny pockets. “Ah-ah, drop them.”

AJ paused for a moment. He glanced at Mitch, who winked at him. The little boy was on the same wavelength. He would drop them alright. He tossed them down at Aasim’s feet, and while he knew that he would get into trouble for it, Mitch couldn’t help but let out a triumphant laugh.

“Oh my God, you three are insufferable,” Aasim sighed.

Clementine giggled, yet she hoped that AJ antagonizing others wouldn’t become a habit. She wanted him to have fun and be a kid for a bit. She couldn’t deny that Aasim also had a point about attracting trouble with these little pranks. Aasim glared at the three of them.

The five of them stuck together after that. One of the traps had caught a baby rabbit, to which Clementine let go out of worry of scaring AJ if they were to kill it right there in front of him. Mitch and Louis were against the action, but Clementine and Aasim believed that if they let the babies go to grow and produce more, then the food source in the woods would be replenished in only a matter of a couple months. Rabbits reproduced like crazy.

They kept going deeper into the woods until they stumbled upon a cut rope and a cigarette made from a Bible page. Clementine and Mitch went to examine it with Aasim, Louis, and AJ right behind them. A bad feeling filled them. Something wasn’t right.


End file.
